Guild Wars 2

I originally moved to Blackgate from Gandara after realising the EU server blocks were not for me (Night worker in the UK so usually awake during East Coast Hours) but haven’t really settled into Blackgate well (part of this is I can’t seem to find a Guild that fits me nor do I enjoy running around in a zerg without any sort of tactics) so consider this another body on there way to Kaineng.

willwill.9318:

We need a real pvp system like daoc had… ranks and realm ranks, or else it’s going to be 24/7 boring Zerging… No need to roam for pvp when everyone doesn’t care about how split up their kills are…

You get achievements and titles, I could see the possiblity to stretch this dynamic a little, perhaps giving you access to new Armor looks as you progress through the WvW scene.

Hrm difficult to Master you say?

/Challenge accepted.

Main reason I tend to stay out of sPvP is because I know how broken the Phantasm spam build is (15 sec or less cooldown on the burstier Phantasms) and honestly refuse to use it because I know myself it isn’t right.

If I do sPvP with my Mesmer, I run a condition clone build, killing my clones = bad because you will get more conditions on you and boon stripped, it’s also fun to run a build that is entirely Anti-Retaliation stacker Guardian due to multiple ways to inflict conditions, strip boons and generally make it impossible for them to spam retaliation.

I run the build with two forms of stealth, decoy and mass invis (Moa Bird is actually overrated imho and if you see them winding up, roll and you’ll dodge being turned into a bird) a little known thing is stealth cannot be re-entered for a few seconds after stealthing the first time (the skill will go on CD if you try but you won’t be stealthed) but this build requires a great deal more thought and skill than the mindless Phantasm spam while running away because you have to be extremely proactive, on the move constantly and willing to get into mid range to get your winds of Chaos bouncing between enemies.

The Jewel in the crown of this build is Arcane Thievery, this is what cuts down shortbow bleed stackers, condimancers and Guardians, ripping all there boons off them and replacing them with conditions is a VERY powerful skill (well balanced too because it’s on a 45 sec cooldown) the bouncing effect of winds of Chaos and innate survivability of the build also make you more than a match for the lolphantrun build.

What the build doesn’t handle well is Engineers and good Warriors (not the gimmick warriors but good ones)

Another thought comes to mind, is a lot of this “Mesmer hate” also to do with being able to avoid the common burst combos (Steal > Pistol Whip & Hammer KD > 100 Blades) by blinking backwards, Chaos Storming or Chaos armoring?

I wonder if these people are aware that everyone has numberous skills to “avoid” the burst combos.

Thief: Shadow step, blind power, roll for initiative
Engineer: Miniturisation Elixir, Stability Elixir, Shield 4 & 5
Elementalist: Mist Form, Arcane Shield, Armor of Earth

Just a few examples that come directly to mind.

SoS are not exactly renowned for making sensible calls I’m afraid, during the last 24 hour match they could have used common sense and tried to open up a 2nd front when BG managed to make gains into ET territory….

Lo and behold, they came straight after us and avoided ET like the plague.

Mesmer downed state is too powerful? Look for the Mesmer with the Red Arrow above there head, that’s the real Mesmer.

Mesmer downed state is probably middling as far as downed states go, the ones worse than it are necro, ranger, warrior, ele from best to worst in terms of bad downed states.

As for the Phantasms power build, yes it definatley needs a nerf or two, they just need to make sure not to overlap the nerf onto condition mesmers who use clones as distractions while conditioning up hoping the clones get killed for extra conditions for there phantasmal warlock to do more damage from.

Rumor has it it’s a bug to do with the Quaggan Shaman’s thunder storms that are breaking the Altars. This is purely speculation right now but it isn’t foul play just a rather irritating bug.

Agreed with the stacking and immunity timers, they are absolute musts as far as WvW is concerned, it’s far too easy to lock targets in multiple CC’s that don’t share the same diminishing returns (Daze, Stun, Immobilize, Cripple & Position Manipulation are all on there own diminishing returns)

Auto target is fine since WvW zergs tend to be messy affairs anyway, Auto-tracking isn’t (Auto-tracking are attacks that will always auto-face you, this messes up classes reliant on positioning to deal conditions/damage a great deal) I’m just glad for the most, zerging is quite mindless and hasn’t adopted the Assist train nature.

Totally agree on the line of sight problems on keeps/towers, I don’t get how I tiny wall that barely covers your feet can entirely block your line of sight from someone who is directly in your line of sight.

Another thing to add to anti-zerg mentality is at least the Garrison should start reinforced making it a safe place to put your orb so you don’t get the “Got in first” zergs following a reset getting the orbs within the first hour because people are still filtering in and there is no defensable position for the orb to go that isn’t at risk of being zerged down in the first hour.

I’m a firm believer that Orbs should be very hard to get and take a LOT of effort and investment into obtaining, right now they are getting zerged away in the first hour by “got in first zergs” that sets up the server that did get in first onto a huge advantage and a downward spiral for everyone else.

If you are familar with DaoC, you’ll be familar with Border keeps and the Relic keep itself, how much it took to shut down the border keeps and how much of a battle you had to endure to get the relic from the relic keep, and this is what I’d actually like to see instead:

To me this is how I feel the Garrison and it’s two keeps should work, each keep is classed as a link in the chain that must be cut otherwise the Garrison will be very hard to take, once the Garrison is finally taken the final objective should be the orb altar (which should be a Fortress, it gives no bonuses, just houses the Orb) which you simply won’t be able to breach without unlocking the neccessary paths and your world must hold the neccessary keeps & garrison to get to the Orb Fortress.

Upon finally breaching the Orb Fortress, now comes the hard part, getting out of the Fortress with the Orb and getting it back to one of the keeps you have taken and setting up to defend it.

Yes it sounds awfully difficult, but that’s how it was in DaoC & that’s how it should be here, getting an orb shouldn’t be a first hour “dime a dozen” thing, it should be the hardest thing to do on WvW and something to be proud of once you do it.

A thread for all things in WvW that make you pull the title face, everyone has them, some may have more than others!

So to begin, here are a few things that make me go -_-

1. Two servers are losing to one of the monster servers, one of the servers is trying to keep the pressure on the monster server and manages to gain ground, then the other server….attacks them instead of the monster server rather than using the initiative to open a second front and create huge amounts of pressure and perhaps buckling the monster server.

2. You are defending and manage to break a siege so everyone sally’s forth, the fleeing opposion is being chased down…half of the pursuit force break off to chase one person who is clearly running in the other direction as sacrifice to allow there teammates the chance to escape, vica versa you are that person being chased by 20-30 people and they chase you nearly half way across the map for a single kill and proceed to spam taunts afterwards like they did something smart (but the diversion was enough to cost them a supply line, a tower, perhaps even a keep that your second force was assaulting at the same time your diversionary siege was taking place)

3. (this one actually makes me go XD so It’s more an honorable mention) The enemy zerg decides they are going to spawn camp, you decide to set yourself out as bait which most of them take (making sure to set yourself up with plentiful stun breakers, etc) you keep back peddaling until you are just outside of range of your guards and use a position manipulation CC to pull/push them into the guards and watch them get slaughtered.

Orbs are fine, however the problem is Orbs are too easy to get at match resets by “World that zergs first” because the keeps begin completey un-upgraded.

To resolve this it’d make a lot more sense to have the keeps start with Fortified Doors, Walls and Cannons and the keep where the Orb is placed to start with everything (I’m serious and hear me out on this).

Afterall, Orbs should be difficult to get for how useful they are, it should take HUGE investment to get one, not a one hour speed zerg and lolrunning it back with speed stacker builds and portals, that is what upsets people about WvW right now and many feel hugely frustrated when they see the side that got lucky by getting in first got the Major orb bonus before the hours up.

And for heavens sake, either disable portal until a suitable fix can be brought in or hotfix it so the orb is automatically dropped if you try using portals with it.

willwill.9318:

You make a good Point Mephina, but in every game. Someone has to be the loser. I’m sorry it’s blackgate.

I’m ET anyway,… We’ll farm you tonight, so no worries.You’ll be playing Stormbluff or Jade Quarry for a week .

Let’s just say abusing oversights and broken stuff to get ahead isn’t exactly “great skill” it’s exploiting (albeit a softer form)

I don’t blame you guys for using the swiftness stack weapons with a perma swiftness class to run orbs and negate the speed penalty, that’s Anet’s fault for not adding a proper debuff or speed cap to orb running and I blame the Beta testers for not reporting that speed stacking negates the orb run speed penalty.

It’s also Anets fault for not realising that keeps should start a lot more fortified at the beginning of a match, to avoid the “we got in first” zergs, Orbs should take a great deal of time investment to obtain, not capturable in the first hour where everyone is still getting in.

Nor is it your fault or anyone elses that Anet forgot to add a simple “drops orb when using the Mesmer portal” to avoid the portal chaining.

I see Orbs as relics and the keeps that hold them should be as hard to break as the DaoC relic keeps, should they fix this stuff, we shall see how “well” you guys really do when you can’t go zerging straight in for a Major Orb bonus in less than an hour because of broken and underworked stuff playing into your favor.